Home
| | | | | | }} | gueststarring = | }} | costarring = | | | | | | | | | | | | | | }} | uncredited = }}}} }} "Home" is the season finale of the fourth season of Angel and the eighty-eighth episode overall. Written and directed by Tim Minear, it was originally broadcast on May 7, 2003 on the WB network. Synopsis Angel has returned to the hotel following the death of Jasmine to find none other than Lilah Morgan waiting for him. Wesley refuses to believe that it is actually her, but Angel confirms that she is indeed Lilah but is also still dead as her contract with Wolfram & Hart extends long after her death. Lilah explains that once she's finished with the gang she'll be returning to hell, but for now is there to make them an offer on behalf of the Senior Partners. After a few minutes, the gang are still unable to believe what Lilah has offered them, and ask her to repeat it. She explains that the Senior Partners have decided to offer Angel Investigations control of Wolfram & Hart's LA branch (now restaffed and rebuilt). It is a reward to them, Lilah explains, for ending world peace. The gang argue this viewpoint, as Jasmine was creating a world where no-one had free will as well as eating people. Lilah reminds them that in this world, all suffering would have ended and everyone would have been happy for the simple cost of a couple of dozen people a day. But instead, chaos and destruction still abound for which Lilah thanks them. Although Angel and the others struggle with the idea they may have caused more harm than good, Lilah tells them that limo will be waiting outside the hotel before dawn the next morning to take them on a grand tour to help them make up their minds. Meanwhile, Connor wanders the streets of LA (which is still filled with riots following the breaking of Jasmine's spell) having never felt so lost disconnected from the world. He then spots a cop on a roof planning to kill himself. Although Connor initially tries to help talk the man down, when he learns that he had a family he would have left behind he instead gets angry and starts to savagely beat him. At the hotel, the gang work on locating Cordelia and Connor but come up with nothing. Lilah's offer is weighing hard on everyone's minds, knowing what they could do with the massive resources that are being offered to them. When Gunn brings up the idea of at least taking the tour, Angel angrily tells the others that he can't stop them from going but warns them that even before the limo ride is over they'll be corrupted. Angel then leaves to look for Connor. Everyone else decides to head to bed, The next morning, Fred wakes up and decides to take the tour being careful not to wake anyone else up. When she gets outside she finds the limo is already there while Wesley is deciding if he should enter. Fred tells him she thought she'd be the only one, while Wesley responds he knew he wouldn't be but didn't expect her to go along too. Just then Gunn appears as well, reasoning that they should go along to at least see what Wolfram & Hart are up to. Wesley muses that it seems that humans are indeed the most corruptible seconds before Angel reveals himself having decided, despite his words the previous night, to also check out what Wolfram & Hart are offering. He opens the limo door to find Lorne has been there for a while enjoying the amenities. Arriving at Wolfram & Hart, the gang are overwhelmed to walk into a huge lobby with the workers all welcoming Angel to the building (and calling him 'Mr'). Lilah then arrives with four guides who will show them each around a relevant part of the firm. The gang object to being split up, but Lilah points out they could have blown up the limo if they were intending to kill them, and offers them all guns if they want extra protection. The gang accept the reasoning, with Wesley pointing out the firm has never tried to deceive them, and leave (with Fred picking up a semi-automatic). Lorne is sent away to tour the entertainment department, Wesley is partnered with a fellow Englishman, Gunn is assigned to a beautiful woman, Fred gets the company of a fellow scientist called Knox and Angel will be escorted by Lilah herself. Gunn speaks to his guide, unable to understand why he is being offered a job too since his special skill is only muscle which he knows the firm will likely have plenty of. They briefly stop outside the security office, and Gunn assumes this is why he's here but his guide explains they have bigger plans for him. Fred converses with Knox, who she assumes to be the head of the science division. Knox explains that he just reports to the head, who would be Fred if she takes the job. Fred is barely able to believe that she's being offered such a job, and is left even more amazed to find the lab she'd be running is completely staffed and filled with state-of-the-art equipment. Wesley's guide, Rutherford Sirk, takes him to the firm's collection of books. Wesley is unimpressed to find a small looking collection, but Sirk explains that the books can call upon any text in the firm's archive and proves it by summoning up the text of an obscure codex. Wesley knows that Sirk is a former Watcher and stole from the now-destroyed council, and (although very impressed) cuts his tour short by knocking him out. Lilah shows Angel what could be his office, complete with its own private elevator and access to a motor pool. Angel is unimpressed, and decides he's seen enough when Lilah shows him another feature by opening the blinds exposing the vampire to direct sunlight. Angel instinctively raises his hands to protect himself, but then notices he's not bursting into flames. Lilah explains that all the glass in the building is necro-tempered to prevent Angel from bursting into flames during the day, and Angel allows himself to enjoy it for a few seconds before asking Lilah to close the blinds and again makes to leave, refusing to allow himself to become part of the problem. Lilah argues that with Wolfram & Hart's resources Angel could make much more of a difference and make the world like he wants it to be. In the end, she argues, the world doesn't need an unyielding champion but someone who knows the value of compromise. She then hands Angel a file on the upcoming Sunnydale apocalypse as well as an amulet that is supposed to be crucial in the final battle. Angel still isn't interested, until Lilah points out that with the firm's help he could find Cordelia and Connor in ten seconds. Angel tells Lilah that he's truly sorry for what happened to her, but he intends to leave with his friends. As he goes to exit, Lilah gets a call from the Senior Partners before switching on the TV for Angel where a news report is playing about a hostage situation involving explosives in progress at a sporting goods store. Angel is horrified to see that the person responsible for it is none other than Connor. Angel grabs Lilah by the throat and accuses her and the Senior Partners of setting him up, but she insists that they have nothing to do with Connor's actions. He demands that they make Connor stop what he's doing, but Lilah reminds him they have no control over him and reminds Angel that he raised... or rather, didn't, raise him. She then warns Angel that if he leaves now, the offer will be rescinded. Angel tells Lilah that she and the other workers are everything that's wrong with the world, before beginning to make his own offer. Gunn's tour guide takes him to the next part of his tour, and he is unnerved when he realizes that they are going to the White Room. Despite his protests, he finds himself in the mysterious space and meets the the little girl's replacement... a mysterious large black cat. Gunn's initial fear is replaced by curiosity as he looks into the cats eyes. At the sporting goods store, numerous hostages are all wired to the main explosive. Connor orders a man to hold his scared daughter properly despite the fact his arm is broken. Connor then realizes his father has arrived, and isn't surprised as Angel leaps down to face his son. In Wolfram & Hart's records room, Wesley punches out the guard and starts searching through the firm's files. Lilah appears, not in the least surprised that Wesley headed here, and admits she is surprised he took so long to make it. Although Lilah thinks that Wesley has come to plunder the Senior Partner's secrets he instead reveals what he came for... Lilah's eternal contract with Wolfram & Hart. He burns it, telling his former lover that deserves to rest in peace however Lilah responds that she knew what she signed on for and tells Wesley to look in the drawer again. Wesley finds the contract has been returned completely unharmed. Lilah thanks him for the thought, but points out that such a contract is not so easily done away with. Wesley is left saddened that Lilah will forever belong to the Senior Partners and will never know peace. In the store, Angel tries to talk Connor down but its clear that the boy has now lost all reason. He shows Angel that everyone is wired, including himself... and the still-comatose Cordelia. Angel tries to assure Connor that he will get over losing Jasmine like the rest of the gang had to, but Connor protests that it has nothing to do with her. He doesn't feel pain or sadness or anything, and as far as Connor is concerned this means he's as dead as Angel. Angel, as his heart breaks to see his son in such pain, tries to apologize for not being there for him growing up and assures Connor that no matter what he loves him and so did Darla which is why she sacrificed herself so he could live. Connor accepts that Angel tried to love him, but not enough to stop Holtz from taking him away. He then asks Cordelia's unconscious form why she stopped loving him too. The two then talk about Jasmine's hold, and how she knew that Angel would turn against her when he knew the truth. Angel promises Connor that he's going to take back all his mistakes and help him start again, but Connor assumes this to be just another lie and decides to end his pain by killing everyone before then making to set off his bomb. Angel leaps to action, disconnecting Connor and beating him back before releasing all the hostages. Father and son then begin to fight, with Connor trying to set off Cordelia's explosive before being disabled with a hunting knife to the leg. Angel forces Connor to the ground, and promises his son that he truly does love him and is about to prove it before swinging the knife down to Connor's neck... Back at Wolfram & Hart's lobby, the gang start to reconvene. All have been left very impressed by what they've seen, with Gunn telling the others that he intends to take the job even if the others don't. Wesley concurs that they could do a great deal of good with what they could gain by accepting what the Senior Partners are offering. Fred asks if they're seriously considering accepting the offer, when Angel appears and tells everyone he's already accepted on behalf of all of them. The others are shocked at his 'executive decision', but aren't angry since they were going to make the same one anyway. Lilah compliments Angel on his decision, and confirms that Cordelia is safe and being cared for by the firm as well as assuring that they'll do what they can to wake her up. Angel then asks to see 'him', and although Lilah initially protests that it wasn't part of the deal she soon acquiesces... after all, he's the boss. She hands Angel the file on Sunnydale and the amulet, telling him a limo is waiting to take him to Connor. As he leaves, the rest of the gang are left wondering who Connor is. A family sit down to dinner, with Connor among them. Unlike the psychotic, disturbed young man who Angel previously fought with, this version of Connor is happy and healthy with a perfect family life and bright future ahead of him. As the family prepare to eat in celebration of Connor getting in the top tenth percentile with the pick of any college he wants to go to, the boy makes to family. From outside, Angel silently watches both saddened that he's lost his son while happy to see Connor finally has the love and happiness he never knew with him. Continuity *The episode contains a number of connections with Buffy. Wesley's Wolfram & Hart guide, Rutherford Sirk, comments that the Watchers Council no longer exists, a reference to the events of the Buffy episode, "Never Leave Me". However we later see that some members of the Council, such as Giles, have survived. Following the events of this episode, Angel takes a trip to the Hellmouth for "End of Days" and "Chosen", bearing an amulet that will be worn by Spike in Buffy's final battle. *The toast that Connor offers to his new family at the end—"To family"—is the same as that offered by Wesley in Angel's hallucination at the beginning of the season, in "Deep Down". *Gunn's spirit guide in The White Room takes the form of a black panther, similar to the puma which acts as Buffy's spirit guide in "Intervention". *The so-called "false" prophecy—"The Father will kill The Son"—seemingly comes to pass when Angel erases Connor, the son of the vampire with a soul, from the world. Appearances Locations *Los Angeles, CA *White Room Behind the Scenes Production *This is the last episode with Charisma Carpenter and Vincent Kartheiser as regulars. They will each make guest appearances in Season 5. *This is the last episode with Stephanie Romanov, though her character, Lilah, does make appearances in the ''Spike'' graphic novels. This episode also contains the last scenes set at the Hyperion Hotel, and is the last we see of Angel's convertible. *The sporting goods store that Connor has seized is, in fact, the lobby of Paramount Studios. The peak of the logo can be seen on the balcony. *The scientist Knox, who shows Fred around the laboratories of Wolfram & Hart, is played by Jonathan M. Woodward, who also plays Holden Webster in the Buffy episode "Conversations with Dead People". Woodward also appeared in an episode of Firefly, meaning that the actor has a "trifecta" — he has appeared in Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. Pop Culture References *Originally, Tim Minear wanted to call Rutherford Sirk's character "Hitchcock" as an homage to Alfred Hitchcock and a reference to the Hitchcockian qualities of Wolfram & Hart, but it was deemed too obvious, so they gave him the name "Sirk" instead, after Douglas Sirk, a director who was a contemporary of Hitchcock. On the commentary track, the director says that Angel is akin to a Sirk movie in that it is about men and women and their relationships, it's a melodrama, and it's a potboiler. *During their tour of Wolfram & Hart, Lilah makes a reference to ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''. *Knox makes a reference to Dungeons and Dragons while talking to Fred. *Fred calls Knox "the MacGyver of Wolfram & Hart." *While showing Angel his office, Lilah and Angel make reference to the game show ''Let's Make a Deal''. Music *Robert J. Kral - "Home" *Robert J. Kral- original score Spoilers *Connor returns in two episodes of Season Five: "Origin" and "Not Fade Away." *Cordelia Chase would awake from her coma in "You're Welcome." International titles *'German': Ein verlockendes Angebot (A tempting Offer) *'French': Une vraie famille (A real family) Goofs, Bloopers & Continuity Errors *The word 'Boston' is clearly visible on the supposedly LAPD vehicles surrounding Connor in the sporting goods store. Other *Though Connor says that "you can't be saved by a lie", Angel does just that by giving him a new identity. nl:Home Category:Crossover episodes Category:Angel episodes Category:Angel Season 4